EUGENE, Ore. -- (Aug. 26, 2009) – Ten incoming University of Oregon freshmen will embark on "Project Tomato," a four-day trip to give them an insider’s look at UO dining services and its connections to local agriculture. Starting Monday, Aug. 31, the students will bike to and camp at local farms, work with farm staff to pick tomatoes, and make pizza sauce to use in the dining hall.

The first leg of the trip will be spent biking to several farms east of Eugene, before camping for two nights at Pleasant Hill Orchards/River Bend Farm. The students will learn about permaculture—agriculture that relies on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem—and harvest about 1,000 pounds of tomatoes.

The second part of the program will focus on exploring Eugene's urban agriculture and then the students will head to the UO dining hall kitchen to create pizza sauce from the harvested tomatoes and other local ingredients. Tom Driscoll, director of food services, estimated 1,000 pounds of tomatoes would be needed to make as much pizza sauce as the dining hall goes through in a week.

Project Tomato is the first pre-orientation trip of its kind at the UO. It is managed by the Office of Sustainability with the purpose of mixing workshops, hands-on learning and recreation to help incoming freshmen make new friends and learn about the UO's sustainability initiatives.

"We want to inspire students to get involved from day one," said recent UO graduate Shelley Bowerman, one of Project Tomato's student organizers who helped secured a $5,000 grant to support the project. "Often, students are disoriented and intimidated when they arrive at a new school and a new city. We want them to understand that they can have a great impact where they live."

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